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The ‘Organics’ Investment Case

Many of you who know me quite well know that I am a sucker for impact investments, investments not only generate a reasonable return but also come together with a ‘double bottom-line’ be it to the environment and/or society in general. The best example is like any investment that deals with green/alternative renewable energy.

I recently revised our business plan to go full organic because of the benefits of organic farming which I wrote about a while a go and also the simple fact that organics fetch a 30% premium vis-a-vis conventional crops.

I made this decision after visiting a neighbouring organic farm and eating the raw veggies and seeing their practices that require absolutely no synthetic chemicals like pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and bla.

Being an agropreneur, I have to do extensive research on how to maximize profit while not interfering with the integrity of the food and after months of research I have landed to one conclusion; organic farming, innovation and technology are the only tools which can help solve our food crisis.

Food Crisis

Most of the food in this planet is conventionally grown i.e. they cannot grow without synthetic chemicals like fertilizer and herbicides which are manufactured from crude oil and natural gas. Crude oil is one of the most volatile commodities traded by people all over the world and whenever oil prices go up, food prices follow as well as everything else.

When food production is tied to a speculator’s feelings in wall street, you are going to have problems.

In Kenya, we suffer heavily due to crude oil price volatility like in the last 4 months where we have seen fuel prices rise by over 40% to record highs. This trickled down fast to inflation which soared for another 12th straight month to stand at 19.72%.

Back to organics….another important aspect of organic farming that convinced me was the fact that there are no GMOs allowed in the art, just plain old food :-) We need more farmers, entrepreneurs, government and consumers to think organic as we fight this war with Monsanto’s genetically engineered foods.

I am participating in a youth and agriculture blogging competition where I could win 1500 Euros and most importantly the opportunity of partnering with the organisation in encouraging the youth to venture into agriculture :-)